What is the impact of ‘fake news’?

Randall Mikkelsen, a White House press veteran and managing editor at Thomas Reuters, will come to the Peterborough Town Library on Saturday for “Fake News: What’s the Real Story,” a non-partisan discussion about the impact of fake news and how to tell real from fake. COURTESY PHOTO

The Peterborough Town Library will host White House press veteran Randall Mikkelsen, managing editor with Thomas Reuters, for a discussion on fake news and its impact in today’s culture this Saturday.

Mikkelsen, who has been working for Thomas Reuters since 1988, will begin the nonpartisan discussion at 1 p.m. in the library meeting hall. Mikkelsen said the discussion will involve talking about various forms of fake and misleading news, how to spot them, the history of the news industry, and more.

“Shortly after the election I was reading a report about how high school kids were having trouble identifying fake news and my first thought was, this can’t just be high school students,” said Mikkelsen, a Plaistow resident who has done four other similar talks at libraries in the past couple months.

Mikkelsen said that his interest in speaking about fake news is grounded in the idea that he believes news is a fundamental part of a democracy, adding that citizens need to be properly informed about what is going on in their community and the world at large.

“There’s a lot of misinformation out there, certainly a lot more now than there once was,” said Mikkelsen.

Assistant Library Director Mary Hubbard said she was excited to have Mikkelsen coming to the library to speak about fake news, as it expanded upon the library’s mission to increase literacy of all forms.

“It’s important to understand what we are experiencing and how to be a sophisticated consumer,” said Hubbard. “Media literacy affects peoples’ world views.”

The program is a part of the library’s Media Literacy Programming that is taking place in March. No registration is required; the program is free and open to the public. A snow date has been scheduled for April 15.

The Peterborough Town Library is located at 2 Concord St. in Peterborough.

For more information on the program visit PeterboroughTownLibrary.org or call 924-8040.

Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com.